Coach has joined Gucci, Versace, Burberry, Margiela, Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and many others in announcing that it will abandon fur in all of its future collections. The brand made the decision as a response to internal and consumer demand, as more and more people open their eyes to issues of animal rights, environmental protection and sustainability in the fashion industry.
“We understood from our employee population and from our consumers that it was important to them that we take a stand on this issue,” Coach Chief Executive Joshua Schulman told Business of Fashion. “We’re doing it because we believe it’s the right thing to do.”
With London Fashion Week spring/summer 19 being entirely fur-free, Los Angeles banning the manufacture and sale of fur, and Norway completely outlawing fur farming, it seems like the tides are finally turning.
It comes as research from the Humane Society revealed that the fur industry kills more than 100 million animals each year, and causes profound cruelty to millions more. The fur industry is equally devastating to our environment — it takes four times more energy to produce a real fur coat than it does a synthetic one. Given the recent report that found we only have 12 years to limit environmental damage and climate change before it’s officially too late to save the bloody planet, the death of fur is deeply important.
“The Humane Society is delighted that another fashion heavyweight, Coach, has decided to drop fur from its collections and it’s 100% the right thing to do,” HSI UK Executive Director Claire Bass said in a statement. “The last 18-months have seen an unprecedented number of fashion’s biggest brands going fur-free, and there is no question that they are on the right side of history. Designers reviewing their policies on sustainability and ethics are faced with the fact that fur is not only terrible for animal welfare but also bad news for the environment, and with growing public awareness and pressure these are no longer issues they can ignore.
“With each new fur-free announcement, designers that are still championing cruelty by failing to forego fur are falling further out of fashion.”